The present invention relates to a guidance system for establishing a reference direction in space, and especially for directing the flight path of a vehicle such as an interceptor or other missile.
Guidance systems for this purpose have been known heretofore, but such systems have utilized inertial sensors such as gyroscopes to establish a reference direction, and have then guided the flight vehicle with reference to this established direction. Such systems require complex and delicate equipment and sophisticated computer systems, both on board the vehicle and at a remote ground station, and are undesirably complicated and expensive.